<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">I think this is a very good article that explains well. It seems to end abruptly, for I was expecting to hear more.<br id="lineBreakAtBeginningOfSignature"><div dir="ltr">Maybe you should explain exactly what would be found when they went to the website and sort of go through it step[by-step. Just a small thought. I like it.</div><div dir="ltr">Cindy Lou<div>Sent from my iPad</div></div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Feb 12, 2025, at 10:46 AM, Al Elia via NAGDU <nagdu@nfbnet.org> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">
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<p dir="auto">The following article will appear in the March 2025 issue of the Braille Monitor. It is being posted in advance to provide early access to its information for NAGDU members.</p>
<p dir="auto">The Why and How of Service Animal Self-ID in Rideshare</p>
<p dir="auto">by Al Elia</p>
<p dir="auto">From the Editor: Al Elia is an attorney and board member of the National Association of Guide Dog Users (NAGDU), a division of the National Federation of the<br>
Blind. At the NAGDU board’s request, he has been working with the Advocacy and Policy team on transportation concerns of guide dog users since his election to the board in 2021. He serves as the NFB representative on the Air Carrier Access Act Advisory Committee, and served as the NFB’s representative on a rideshare Service Animal Working Group in 2022 and 2023. Here is what he has to say about the recently announced programs for service animal users to self-identify on rideshare platforms:</p>
<p dir="auto">Federation family, many of you may have heard that rideshare companies are offering, or intend to offer, a means of voluntarily identifying yourself as a service animal user on their platforms. You may be wondering how riders can use this “SelfID” feature, what happens when riders opt to use it, and why the companies went down this path. This article will hopefully answer those questions.</p>
<p dir="auto">Taking the last first, the rideshare companies are offering a SelfID feature because of the advocacy of the National Federation of the Blind. As you know, our organization has been advocating, negotiating, and litigating with rideshare companies over the discriminatory denials of transportation to guide dog users for more than ten years. Long ago, we reached settlements with both Uber and Lyft to ensure that their policies explicitly required drivers to transport service animals in accordance with federal and state laws; that they educated drivers on that policy and the requirement to transport us with our service animals; and that they implemented procedures for reporting, investigating, and disciplining drivers who deny us rides because of our service animals.</p>
<p dir="auto">Unfortunately, after many years under those settlements, our experience riding with our service animals did not meaningfully improve. Since that was unacceptable, we continued our advocacy, demanding better driver education on the laws and policies requiring them to transport service animals and demanding that rideshare companies treat complaints about service animal denials with the same seriousness as complaints about assault. The companies agreed, but we still saw no meaningful reduction in service animal denials. Anecdotal evidence from members, such as drivers telling us that they didn’t care about policies and would just drive for the other company if removed from one rideshare platform, also suggested that driver education would never solve the denial problem. A different solution was needed.</p>
<p dir="auto">Meanwhile, we riders were growing tired of shouldering the burden of establishing evidence of and reporting each and every knowing denial to the rideshare companies. Many members told us they had stopped reporting denials altogether because reporting took so much time and didn’t seem to result in fewer denials. Many of us started messaging drivers to tell them we had a service animal, effectively self-identifying as service animal users, in order to have the denial occur earlier in the pickup and reduce the time we had to wait for a ride that would take us. Those messages also ensured that the rideshare companies had written evidence to link denials to our service animals in their investigations so they could remove the denying drivers from their platforms. We suggested that the rideshare companies could make our lives easier by sending a similar message for us, by subsequently reminding drivers that policies and laws required them to transport service animals if those drivers attempted to cancel our rides after receiving the message, and by automatically reporting and investigating drivers who continue to cancel anyway. In order for that to work, the companies would need riders to tell them ahead of time that they use a service animal. That was the origin of SelfID.</p>
<p dir="auto">As many of you know, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations permit rideshare companies and drivers to ask two questions of a person using a service animal: Do you require use of a service animal because of a disability, and what service is your service animal trained to perform? The regulations indicate that those questions should not be asked if the answers are readily apparent, like when it’s a guide dog guiding a blind person, but in reality many people do not recognize blind people and guide dogs. As previously mentioned, the National Federation of the Blind demanded more and better training of drivers to hopefully increase our recognition. However, we are not confident that any amount of training will solve the general problem that blindness and guide-dog use are apparently not obvious, as many of us know from being frequently told that we “don’t look blind.” In effect, SelfID offers an option for riders to answer questions in advance that the rideshare companies and their drivers are already permitted to ask service animal users whenever we use their services.</p>
<p dir="auto">The ADA regulations also permit rideshare companies to offer a program that is specific to riders with disabilities, such as SelfID. However, those regulations also prohibit the companies from requiring riders with disabilities to use that program rather than the programs provided for the general public and also prohibit them from discriminating against riders with disabilities who choose not to use such a program. In short, riders have the right not to identify themselves as service animal users before pickup, and must not suffer different treatment if they enjoy that right. That is why the National Federation of the Blind insisted that use of SelfID must be voluntary, that rideshare companies treat all service animal denial reports and investigations with the same urgency, and that they continue to educate drivers on the policies and laws requiring them to transport service animal users whether they choose to use SelfID or not. The rideshare companies understood and agreed.</p>
<p dir="auto">While SelfID was an NFB proposal, we did not advocate for it in a vacuum. We worked with other service animal advocacy and training organizations, as well as our members, to ensure that community concerns were addressed. When rideshare companies suggested or piloted SelfID features that could negatively impact our rights, or offered us little apparent benefit, we pushed back both privately and publicly, and again worked with members and other organizations to amplify our message.</p>
<p dir="auto">As to how the SelfID programs work, only Uber has released its program to the public. This article will not discuss Lyft’s program because it is still in a limited pilot and is subject to change.</p>
<p dir="auto">Uber’s SelfID features are keyed to the rider card that appears on drivers’ screens as they are approaching a rider’s pickup location. SelfID riders can choose whether or not their use of a service animal appears on that card along with a reminder that drivers must transport service animals. In either case, if a driver attempts to cancel the ride after that card appears, they will be interrupted by a popup reminding them that Uber policy and the law require them to transport service animals, and that they may be removed from the Uber platform if they cancel the ride. If a driver cancels the ride anyway, the rider is paired with a new driver and receives both an app notification and an email with the following message: “Hi, We noticed that your driver canceled your ride with your service animal. We would like to better understand what happened to offer you additional support. Would you like us to investigate further?” If the rider taps the notification or emailed link, they can reply as desired, and provide any additional details in a support message. If the rider replies that they want Uber to investigate, Uber will investigate the denial in the same manner and with the same urgency as if the rider had reported a service animal denial using the phone hotline or Uber’s denial-reporting form. Uber will continue to take reports of denials through those phone and web/app reporting mechanisms for riders who prefer to use them, including riders who do not use SelfID.</p>
<p dir="auto">The National Federation of the Blind proposed SelfID because we believe that it will benefit guide dog and other service animal users. As explained above, it reduces the cognitive and temporal burden of messaging drivers and reporting denials. As a result, denials are more likely to be reported, are more likely to be supported by evidence that the driver knew a dog was a service animal, and are more likely to result in driver deactivations. This not only benefits SelfID users, but also benefits other service animal users by reducing the number of denying drivers and by conveying to drivers generally that Uber is serious about eliminating discrimination.</p>
<p dir="auto">SelfID will also help quantify service animal denials. In the past, rideshare companies were not able to compare the cancellation rate for service animal users to the cancellation rate for others because they did not know how many times service animal users were transported without being denied. By having this data, rideshare companies may be able to identify specific locales or populations suffering disproportionate denials, and test the effectiveness of different solutions.</p>
<p dir="auto">The National Federation of the Blind will monitor the rollout of SelfID and our members’ impressions of the feature. We will continue advocating for improvements both to SelfID and to rideshare experiences generally for guide dog users. We have already identified areas for improvement, such as an option to identify our use of a service animal immediately after a driver accepts a ride, and changes to simplify the process for telling Uber to begin an investigation. We are also providing feedback to Lyft to ensure that its SelfID feature offers the maximum benefit to guide dog users.</p>
<p dir="auto">If you want to use Uber’s SelfID feature, Uber has the following information on its website:</p>
<p dir="auto">“Uber’s Self-ID feature allows riders to notify drivers in-app when a service animal may be present during a trip. Riders can choose when to disclose to the driver that they are traveling with a service animal:</p>
<ul>
<li>No disclosure: Drivers won’t see any service animal indication in the rider’s profile.</li>
<li>Disclosure at pickup: Drivers will be notified upon arrival at the pickup location.</li>
</ul>
<p dir="auto">To access the eligibility form, go to Account > Settings > Accessibility in your app profile settings.”</p>
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